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110 Native Wisconsin Riparium
I have a start on a new setup that will go into a local museum and will showcase native Wisconsin stream fish. I don't have a lot of experience with native fish, but I have been out a few times sampling and I have some familiarity with keeping darters and similar fish in aquariums. Here is a quick list with some of the species/genera that I want to consider using...
This setup is going to be a planted riparium to emulate a grassy streambank habitat that you owuld see along the edges of a typical Wisconsin coolwater stream. This picture form a while ago shows a 50-gallon riparium planting that I had going a while ago.
This tank had some Mexican livebearers and a Cryptoheros cichlid, but I think that general look wil be a good representation of a Wisconsin stream.
I had that tank filled most of the way to the top and with the plants growing up out of the top, but since this new riparium will be installed in a museum I am going to keep all of the foliage inside the tank and with a closed canopy on top. A taller aquarium style will thus be a better choice in this case. A standard 110 extra-high (48" wide X 18" deep X 24" tall) should be a good shape.
For the riparium configuraiton the tank will only be filled to about 40% of total volume, so (minus the space taken up with substrates) it will be just around 40 gallons of water. However, it will have a nice broad footprint so I should be able to get a good active fish display put together.
This project will present some unique challenges for the abovewater planted area. I do not intend to use any underwater plants--but I do want to assemble a really nice underwater hardscape--but the riparium plants will need to make that nice lush grassy streambank fell that is typical here in Wisconsin. Many of the plants that grow in the marginal situation here are probably strongly seasonal and require cold winter dormancies. You can't really keep plants like that in an indoor display very well for very long, so I plan to use a few "stand-ins" to make the right look. That Japanese sweetflag (Acorus gramineus) that I had in the 50G riparium would be a good one and I have a few other ideas too. Various sedges (Carex spp.), including some native ones, might also work pretty well. This shoudl be an instructive experience anyway.
It will take a while to get the actual setup rolling. But I am going to post up some more additional ideas here as they come to mind.
I have a start on a new setup that will go into a local museum and will showcase native Wisconsin stream fish. I don't have a lot of experience with native fish, but I have been out a few times sampling and I have some familiarity with keeping darters and similar fish in aquariums. Here is a quick list with some of the species/genera that I want to consider using...
- southern redbelly dace (Phoxinus erythrogaster)
- central mudminnow (Umbra limi)
- rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
- various other darter possibilities (mostly other Etheostoma maybe also some Percina???)
- stoneroller (Campostoma sp.)
This setup is going to be a planted riparium to emulate a grassy streambank habitat that you owuld see along the edges of a typical Wisconsin coolwater stream. This picture form a while ago shows a 50-gallon riparium planting that I had going a while ago.

This tank had some Mexican livebearers and a Cryptoheros cichlid, but I think that general look wil be a good representation of a Wisconsin stream.
I had that tank filled most of the way to the top and with the plants growing up out of the top, but since this new riparium will be installed in a museum I am going to keep all of the foliage inside the tank and with a closed canopy on top. A taller aquarium style will thus be a better choice in this case. A standard 110 extra-high (48" wide X 18" deep X 24" tall) should be a good shape.
For the riparium configuraiton the tank will only be filled to about 40% of total volume, so (minus the space taken up with substrates) it will be just around 40 gallons of water. However, it will have a nice broad footprint so I should be able to get a good active fish display put together.
This project will present some unique challenges for the abovewater planted area. I do not intend to use any underwater plants--but I do want to assemble a really nice underwater hardscape--but the riparium plants will need to make that nice lush grassy streambank fell that is typical here in Wisconsin. Many of the plants that grow in the marginal situation here are probably strongly seasonal and require cold winter dormancies. You can't really keep plants like that in an indoor display very well for very long, so I plan to use a few "stand-ins" to make the right look. That Japanese sweetflag (Acorus gramineus) that I had in the 50G riparium would be a good one and I have a few other ideas too. Various sedges (Carex spp.), including some native ones, might also work pretty well. This shoudl be an instructive experience anyway.
It will take a while to get the actual setup rolling. But I am going to post up some more additional ideas here as they come to mind.